Poet & Author

Grey District Library Poetry Competition Winner!

I am excited to announce that I am the winner of the 2015 Grey District Library Poetry Competition, which was held early as part of Friday’s National Poetry Day. My daughter won the under-13 section, too, which was fantastic as it was the first time she entered any competitions.

It was wonderful to see so many writers and lovers of poetry come out to the event, and to share their poetry.

My own poem was a re-work of a poem from last year. A fellow writer encouraged me to work on it as a longer piece. I submitted part I to the competition.

Conversations with Haumapuhia (I)

Tāne’s footsteps echo above the rain,
Demanding harmony from the orchestra,
As his feathered followers perform their rehearsed daybreak song.

All else is quiet on the lake-front;
The violence of last evening’s thunderstorm
Has settled like a dewy memory upon the landscape.

Plans have been thrown into turmoil.
The lake is not co-operating –
There will be no hike today.

Scaling mountains can be less challenging than a debate with the patriarch,
And, I, too, sometimes choose water from the wrong spring.
Today this van, like your lake, holds me in.

Haumapuhia, great flailing taniwha.
When, defeated, you turned to stone,
Was your heart the first to go?